The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock, Invesco, Bitwise and Valkyrie.
The companies expected to hear the regulator’s response by October 16-19, but a new date is set for mid-January 2024.
Bloomberg stock analyst James Seyffarth believes the decision on bids from Fidelity, VanEck and WidsomTree will also be pushed back. Previously, the SEC had already postponed the consideration of documentation for the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs from ARK Invest and 21Shares.
ANOTHER: @BlackRock joins the party on spot #Bitcoin ETF delays. Three out of seven down. https://t.co/Cn9DSibqf8 pic.twitter.com/eJTzDNInCi
— James Seyffart (@JSeyff) September 28, 2023
According to Seyffart, the delay is due to the expected “shutdown” of the US government, which could potentially occur on October 1. This will disrupt the work of the country’s financial regulators and other federal agencies.
Both wings of Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate – have not agreed on various bills to finance the activities of the authorities. Therefore, legislators need to pass 12 different documents before the beginning of October, otherwise their work will be suspended.
Another Bloomberg expert, Eric Balchunas, talked about rumors that the SEC was going directly to issuers of exchange-traded funds, which has never happened before.
There’s chatter that SEC reached out to the issuers, which has never happened bf in process, to go over (likely some plumbing issues). Good news IMO vs same ole same ole delay, radio silence then denial in Jan bc of (likely) custody (or something else)
— Eric Balchunas (@EricBalchunas) September 28, 2023
At the end of August he countedthat the probability of a spot Bitcoin ETF being approved by the end of 2023 is 75%, and by the end of 2024 – 95%.
“Although we factored Grayscale’s victory into our previous 65% odds, the unanimity and confidence of the decision exceeded all expectations and left the SEC with very little wiggle room,” Balchunas added.
Let us remind you that on September 27, the Commission announced the postponement of the decision on requests from 21Shares and VanEck to launch a spot ETF based on Ethereum.
Found an error in the text? Select it and press CTRL+ENTER
ForkLog newsletters: keep your finger on the pulse of the Bitcoin industry!